Ma`asei (Acts) 7
7
1And the high priest said, “Is this so?”
2And he replied, “Men, brothers and fathers, listen: The Elohim of esteem appeared to our father Aḇraham when he was in Aram Naharayim, before he dwelt in Ḥaran,
3and said to him, ‘Come out of your land and from your relatives, and come here, into a land that I shall show you.’# Gen. 12:1
4“Then he came out of the land of the Kasdim and dwelt in Ḥaran. And from there, after the death of his father, He removed him to this land in which you now dwell.
5“And He gave him no inheritance in it, not a foot of it.# Deu. 2:5 But He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him,# Gen. 12:7; Gen. 17:8#See also Gen. 13:15; Gen. 15:4; Gen. 15:7; Gen. 15:18-21; Gen. 24:7; Gen. 48:4 when as yet he had no child.
6“And Elohim spoke in this way: that his seed would be sojourning in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.# Gen. 15:13
7‘And the nation to whom they shall be enslaved, I shall judge,’# Gen. 15:13 said Elohim, ‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’# Gen. 15:14; Exo. 3:12
8“And He gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so he brought forth Yitsḥaq and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Yitsḥaq brought forth Ya‛aqoḇ, and Ya‛aqoḇ brought forth the twelve ancestors.
9“And the ancestors, becoming jealous, sold Yosĕph into Mitsrayim. But Elohim was with him,# Gen. 37:11; Gen. 37:28; Gen. 39:2; Gen. 39:21
10and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour# Gen. 39:21 and wisdom before Pharaoh, sovereign of Mitsrayim. And he appointed him governor over Mitsrayim and all his house.# Gen. 41:37-46
11“Then a scarcity of food and great distress came over all the land of Mitsrayim and Kena’an,# Gen. 41:54; Gen. 42:5 and our fathers found no food.
12“But Ya‛aqoḇ heard that there was grain in Mitsrayim,# Gen. 42:2 and he sent out our fathers the first time,
13and at the second time Yosĕph was made known to his brothers, and Yosĕph’s race became known to the Pharaoh.
14“And Yosĕph sent and called his father Ya‛aqoḇ and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people.
15“And Ya‛aqoḇ went down to Mitsrayim, and died, he and our fathers,# Gen. 46:5; Gen. 49:33; Exo. 1:6
16and they were brought over to Sheḵem and laid in the tomb that Aḇraham bought for a price of silver from the sons of Ḥamor, the father of Sheḵem.
17“But as the time of the promise drew near which Elohim had sworn to Aḇraham, the people increased and multiplied in Mitsrayim
18until another sovereign arose who did not know Yosĕph.# Exo. 1:8
19“Having dealt treacherously with our race, this one mistreated our fathers, making them expose their babies, so that they should not live.
20“At that time Mosheh was born, and he was well-pleasing to Elohim. And he was reared three months in the house of his father.
21“But when he was exposed, the daughter of Pharaoh took him up and reared him as her own son.
22“And Mosheh was instructed in all the wisdom of the Mitsrites, and was mighty in words and works.
23“And when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Yisra’ĕl.
24“And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended and revenged him who was oppressed, smiting the Mitsrian.
25“And he thought that his brothers would have understood that Elohim would give deliverance to them by his hand, but they did not understand.
26“And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and urged them to peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why do you wrong one another?’
27“But he who was wronging his neighbour pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
28‘Do you wish to kill me as you killed the Mitsrian yesterday?’# Exo. 2:14
29“And at this saying, Mosheh fled and became a sojourner in the land of Miḏyan,# Exo. 2:15 where he fathered two sons.
30“And after forty years were completed, a Messenger of יהוה appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush,# Exo. 3:2 in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.
31“And Mosheh, seeing it, marvelled at the sight, and coming near to look, the voice of יהוה came to him,
32saying, ‘I am the Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Aḇraham and the Elohim of Yitsḥaq and the Elohim of Ya‛aqoḇ.’ And Mosheh trembled and did not have the courage to look.
33‘But יהוה said to him, Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is set-apart ground.
34“I have certainly seen the evil treatment of my people who are in Mitsrayim, and I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, let Me send you to Mitsrayim.” ’# Exo. 3:6-10
35“This Mosheh whom they had refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’# Exo. 2:14 – this one Elohim sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Messenger who appeared to him in the bush.
36“This one led them out, after he had done wonders and signs in the land of Mitsrayim, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37“This is the Mosheh who said to the children of Yisra’ĕl, ‘יהוה your Elohim shall raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brothers. Him you shall hear.’# Deu. 18:15
38“This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the Messenger who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the living Words to give to us,
39unto whom our fathers would not become obedient, but thrust away, and in their hearts they turned back to Mitsrayim,
40saying to Aharon, ‘Make us mighty ones to go before us, for this Mosheh who led us out of the land of Mitsrayim, we do not know what has become of him.’# Exo. 32:1; Exo. 32:23
41“And they made a calf in those days, and brought an offering to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their own hands.
42“So Elohim turned and gave them up to worship the host of the heaven,#See Deu. 4:19; Deu. 17:3; 2Kings 23:5 as it has been written in the book of the Prophets, ‘Did you bring slaughtered beasts and offerings unto Me during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Yisra’ĕl?
43‘And you took up the tent of Moleḵ, and the star of your mighty one Kiyyun, images which you made to bow before them. Therefore I shall remove you beyond Baḇel.’# Amos 5:25-27
44“The Tent of Witness was with our fathers in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Mosheh to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,
45which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Yehoshua into the land possessed by the nations, whom Elohim drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of Dawiḏ,
46who found favour before Elohim and asked to find a dwelling for the Elohim of Ya‛aqoḇ,
47but Shelomoh built Him a house.
48“However, the Most High does not dwell in dwellings made with hands,#See Acts 17:24 as the prophet says:
49‘The heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house shall you build for Me? says יהוה, or what is the place of My rest?
50‘Has My hand not made all these?’# Isa. 66:1, 2
51“You stiff-necked# Exo. 32:9; Exo. 33:3; Exo. 33:5 and uncircumcised in heart and ears!# Lev. 26:41; Jer. 6:10 You always resist the Set-apart Spirit, as your fathers did, you also do.
52“Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who before announced the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
53who received the Torah as it was ordained by messengers, but did not watch over#See Mat. 5:20 it.”
54And hearing this they were cut to the hearts and gnashed the teeth at him.
55But he, being filled with the Set-apart Spirit, looked steadily into the heaven and saw the esteem of Elohim, and יהושע standing at the right hand of Elohim,
56and he said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Aḏam standing at the right hand of Elohim!”# Psa. 110:1
57And crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one mind,
58and threw him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Sha’ul.
59And they were stoning Stephanos as he was calling and saying, “Master יהושע, receive my spirit.”
60And kneeling down he cried out with a loud voice, “Master, do not hold this sin against them.” And having said this, he fell asleep.
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Ma`asei (Acts) 7: TS2009
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Copyright© 1993 – 2015 by the Institute for Scripture Research (ISR). All rights reserved.
Acts 7
7
Stephen’s Sermon
1“Is this true? ” # Lit “Are these things so?” the high priest asked.
2“Brothers and fathers,” he said, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, # Gn 11:31; 15:7; Ps 29:3; Ac 22:1; 1Co 2:8 3and said to him:
Get out of your country
and away from your relatives,
and come to the land
that I will show you. # Gn 12:1 # Gn 12:1
4“Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land you now live in. # Gn 11:31; 12:4-5 5He didn’t give him an inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, # Gn 12:7; 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; Gl 3:16; Heb 8:8-9 even though he was childless. 6God spoke in this way:
His descendants would be strangers
in a foreign country,
and they would enslave
and oppress them 400 years.
7I will judge the nation
that they will serve as slaves, God said.
After this, they will come out
and worship Me in this place. # Gn 15:13-14; Ex 3:12; 12:40 # Gn 15:13-14
8Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised # Gn 17:9-11; 21:2-4 him on the eighth day; Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the 12 patriarchs. # Gn 25:26; 29:31; 30:5; 35:23
The Patriarchs in Egypt
9“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him # Gn 37:11,28; 39:2,21; 45:4; Ps 105:17 10and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household. # Gn 41:37-43; 42:6; Ps 105:21 11Then a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan, # Gn 41:54; 42:5 and our ancestors could find no food. 12When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors the first time. 13The second time, Joseph was revealed to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14Joseph then invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, 75 people in all, # Gn 45:1-4,9-10,16,27; 46:26-27; Ex 1:5; Dt 10:22 15and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there, # Gn 46:5; 49:33; Ex 1:6 16were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. # Gn 23:16; 33:19; 50:13; Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32
Moses, a Rejected Savior
17“As the time was drawing near to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt # Gn 15:13; Ex 1:7; Ps 105:24 18until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt. # Other mss omit over Egypt 19He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them leave their infants outside, so they wouldn’t survive. # A common pagan practice of population control by leaving infants outside to die # Ex 1:8-10,22; Ps 105:25 20At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home three months, 21and when he was left outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son. # Ex 2:2-10; Heb 11:23 22So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions. # 1Kg 4:30; Is 19:11; Lk 24:19
23“As he was approaching the age of 40, he decided # Lit 40, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the Israelites. 24When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 25He assumed his brothers would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other? ’ # Ex 2:11-14; Heb 11:24-26
27“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed him # Moses away, saying:
Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? 28Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday? # Ex 2:14; Lk 12:14; Ac 7:35 # Ex 2:14
29“At this disclosure, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons. # Ex 2:15,22; 18:3-4 30After 40 years had passed, an angel # Other mss add of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came: 32I am the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. # Ex 3:6; Mt 22:32; Mk 12:26; Lk 20:37 # Ex 3:6,15 So Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.
33“Then the Lord said to him:
Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have observed the oppression of My people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to rescue them. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt. # Ex 3:5,7-8,10 # Ex 3:5,7-8,10
35“This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge? # Ex 2:14 — this one God sent as a ruler and a redeemer by means of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. # Ex 14:19; Nm 20:16 36This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, # Ex 12:41; 33:1; Heb 8:9 at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness 40 years. # Ex 14:21; 16:35; Nm 14:33; Ps 95:10; Ac 13:18
Israel’s Rebellion against God
37“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God # Other mss read ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. # Dt 18:15; Ac 3:22 # Dt 18:15 38He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. # Ex 19:17; Is 63:9; Ac 7:53 He received living oracles to give to us. # Dt 5:27; 32:47; Jn 1:17; Rm 3:2; Heb 4:12; 5:12; 1Pt 4:11 39Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him, but pushed him away, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. # Ex 16:3; Nm 11:4; 14:3-4; Ezk 20:8,24 40They told Aaron:
Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him. # Ex 32:1,23 # Ex 32:1,23
41They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made. # Dt 9:16; Ps 106:19-20; Rv 9:20 42Then God turned away # Jos 24:20; Is 63:10 and gave them up to worship # Dt 4:19; 2Kg 21:3; Jr 19:13; Zph 1:5 the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
House of Israel, did you bring Me offerings and sacrifices
40 years in the wilderness?
43No, you took up the tent of Moloch # Canaanite or Phoenician sky or sun god
and the star of your god Rephan, # Perhaps an Assyrian star god — the planet Saturn
the images that you made to worship.
So I will deport you beyond Babylon! # 1Kg 11:7; Am 5:25-27; Ac 7:36 # Am 5:25-27
God’s Real Tabernacle
44“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. # Ex 25:8-9,40; 38:21; Heb 8:5 45Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers, # Jos 3:14; 18:1; 23:9; 24:18; Ps 44:2 until the days of David. 46He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God # Other mss read house of Jacob. # 2Sm 7:1,8; 1Ch 22:7; Ps 89:19; 132:5 47But it was Solomon who built Him a house. # 1Kg 6:1-2; 8:17-20; 2Ch 3:1 48However, the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says: # 1Kg 8:27; 2Ch 2:6
49Heaven is My throne,
and earth My footstool.
What sort of house will you build for Me?
says the Lord,
or what is My resting place?
50Did not My hand make all these things? # Is 66:1-2; Mt 5:34-35 # Is 66:1-2
Resisting the Holy Spirit
51“You stiff-necked # Ex 32:9; Dt 10:16; Heb 3:13 people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! # Lv 26:41; Jr 4:4; 6:10; 9:26 You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your ancestors did, so do you. 52Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? # 2Ch 36:16; Mt 5:12; 21:35; 23:31,37; 1Th 2:15 They even killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers # Ac 3:14; 5:28 you have now become. 53You received the law under the direction of angels # Ac 7:38; Gl 3:19; Heb 2:2 and yet have not kept it.”
The First Christian Martyr
54When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts # Or were cut to the quick and gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, filled by the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw God’s glory, with # Lit and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, # Jn 12:41; Ac 6:5 and he said, 56“Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! ” # Mt 3:16; Jn 1:51
57Then they screamed at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. 58They threw him out of the city and began to stone # Lv 24:14-16; Dt 13:9; Heb 13:12 him. And the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. # Ac 8:1; 22:20 59They were stoning Stephen as he called out: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! ” # Ps 31:5; Lk 23:46; Ac 9:14 60Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, # Mt 5:44; Lk 22:41; 23:34; Ac 9:40 “Lord, do not charge them with this sin! ” And saying this, he fell asleep. # Jn 11:11; 1Co 11:30; 1Th 4:13-15
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